Author - Heather Woodie

If you are looking for a reason to play more games as a family, you’ll want to know the benefits games can provide for improving academics. Games provide ample opportunities for academic practice at every age and stage of learning.

Benefits of Games for Early Learners

Preschoolers and elementary aged students greatly enjoy games! Although parents often cringe at playing games like Candyland (ugh!), there are great lessons for kids in these simple games. Here are just a few reason to play:

Taking turns When you get down to the basics, playing games is about taking turns. Small children benefit from learning this skill. The earlier the better!

Counting Basic game play usually includes counting.

Sorting Some games ask kids to sort objects as part of the game play. Sorting is a great math skill which teaches kids to discriminate.

Reading Although there are many games for pre-readers, these games still help preschoolers practice pre-reading skills. As your children age and play more complex games, there is more reading to practice.

Decision Making Even games without much strategy require making simple decisions.

Math Operations Whether you are playing with money or making a decision about a play, simple math comes into play.

Group Interactions Learning the etiquette of group play goes beyond taking turns and includes learning to interact with other players in various ways.

Academic Reasons to Play Games with Middle Schoolers

The best part of playing games with middle schoolers is their exuberance for any type of play. Plus, they bring new skills to the party. Here is why you should make it a priority to play games with your young adolescent:

Play More Complex Games Not only will these games provide them with many academic opportunities, but parents can have fun when they move past Candyland!

Develop Strategy Skills There are a lot of ways to practice strategic planning while playing a game. You don’t even have to play complex games. Clue requires a strategy to win purposefully. It’s not a “gamer” sort of game, but it is still a game of strategy.

Practice Math Skills You don’t even have to be playing a math game to get this in. There are plenty of games with math skills attached like Monopoly or Settlers of Catan where you must save resources.

Word Skills How many of you play Scrabble on family game night? If you start young and build slowly, you’ll be surprised at how quickly your kids will become a formidable opponent.

How Game Play Helps Homeschooled Teens

If you are the parent of a teenager, then you know time feels short with their increased educational schedule and all the other things they are pursuing. Is it really important to include games for teens? There are strong academic reasons to include teens in family game night.

Strategy Building Older kids have the complex reasoning ability to tackle strategy skills. Choose games which foster strategic thought, and you will see improvement.

Continued Practice Games provide review of the basics such as word skills, math skills, etc.

Great Potential for Mastery Although it makes them impossible to play with, I love to watch my kids figure out a game.

Teens are fun because they get the game and they play well. It gives parents a challenge and makes for an enjoyable hour at the table.

Of course, I focused on the academic benefits of family game night, but there are others as well. Making it a priority to sit down once a week to play with each other is time well spent. It keeps families connected and requires little effort or cost.

If you are teaching your tweens and teens world history and government, there’s a new tool for your homeschool supply stash: Civitas!

Civitas is a game designed and developed by Tyler Hogan, president of Bright Ideas Press. The game complements Chapter 15 of North Star Geography, teaching the forms of government. If you are not a North Star Geography user, the game is equally as relevant to a curriculum which surveys the various kinds of government around the world.

Learn Forms of Government Through a Card Game

Here are the main features of Civitas:

Cards are played according to how each particular form of government operates.

The game play is similar to Uno .

The rules are easy to learn, and there are reference cards if you need help remembering what happens next.

Players experience forms of government by acting out their methods of engagement. Players establish leadership, pass laws affecting other players, and rule the game at a quick pace.

Civitas provides a lively family time with great discussions of government and current events.

The game is a creative way to cement the concepts of government without any prep work on the part of mom or dad.

More Civitas Game Features

Each game box includes 225 playing cards, 12 leadership cards, and rules of play.

The various governments are their own decks (8 all together), and you can mix and match to play a different game each time. Start out simple and work up to playing with all the decks and many governments.

Playing games to reinforce concepts is an age old practice. What are some reasons to play Civitas?

1. Family Fun

This game provides hours of family fun time. You can play a game in a few minutes or play multiple, increasingly complex rounds for hours of fun!

2. Easy to Learn

The game format is basically Crazy 8s with all kinds of change ups and specifications based on the type of government in charge during the round. Don’t worry. The reference cards make it easy to keep track of how to play.

3. Play for Experience

With Civitas, players immerse themselves in all the forms of government. Each time you play, you become more and more familiar with the different types of government.

4. Multi Age Appeal

Civitas keeps the interest of old and young players (starting at age 10).

5. Crowd Pleaser

Civitas is great for a crowd. In fact, we found that a larger group of players made the game even more fun.

If you want a fast paced, hands on approach to teaching what otherwise might be a dull topic, give Civitas a try!

“At the end of a six-week grading period, students who learned about the scientists’ intellectual or personal struggles had significantly improved their science grades, with low-achievers benefiting the most. The students in the control group who only learned about the scientists’ achievements not only didn’t see a grade increase, they had lower grades than the previous grading period before the study began.”

5 Resources for Learning About the Lives, Times, and Science of Great Scientists

One of the great things about these 5 books is that they are written to children. Many of these activities and experiments can be done with minimal parent involvement. That makes scientific discoveries even easier!

Wright Brothers for Kids– If you are studying flight, then this is a detailed book of the history of flight and aviation coupled with a biography of the Wright Brothers. Aviators will have the chance to enjoy many science of flight challenges along the way.

Today I’m sharing some of our favorite science resource books. They represent a variety of science topics and are chock-full of hands-on activities for kids of any age. The best thing about these resources is that they don’t look anything like school. Instead, they look like exploration because that’s what they are!

But while these projects are sure to please your children, they are also full of science learning. That means you canfeel free to substitute your science textbook for one of these guides for a few days or weeks of unit study time where you dig into a science topic that appeals to your kids. Sometimes a shift outside of the typical routine is all you need to reboot a burned out homeschool routine.

Science Resources for Big Science Fun

Bridges: Amazing Structures to Design, Build, and Test– If you have an engineer in your house, this book is a fun resources with lots of different building projects and challenges. You don’t need any special equipment and many of the activities can be self-directed by your students.

Gardening With Children– I’ve had this book for years. If you are a beginner gardener, it’s great for Mom too. Not only do kids learning about planting, but they learn the science involved in all aspects of gardening. You can test soil and do sun experiments. This one is great for late winter and early spring!

Exploring the Solar System: A History with 22 Activities– What kid doesn’t love to learn about space? This book goes from the beginning all the way to modern times with rovers and probes and the International Space Station. There are activities all along the way and they’ll learn about scientists at the same time.

Roller Coaster Science– I’ve used this title in my classroom and have held on to it because it’s a fun way to practice physics. Kids love to try out these investigations. Whether you are studying motion or not, this is a wonderful rainy day book!

So poll your kids, “What would you like to study this week: bridges, rocks, gardening, outer space, or roller coasters?” Then pick one of these guides and start the exploration!

The year is 2016 and it’s a Leap Year! Have you ever thought about what makes a Leap Year and why we have one every so often? I thought it would be fun to share a Geography Quest here at the Bright Ideas Press blog. If you’ve never done a Geography Quest before, they are short adventures in geography that you can enjoy with your kids as a kick start to your day or just to change gears. It’s a pretty informal process, but you are welcome to make it more official if that works better for you. It’s time for Geography Quest: Leap Year Edition.

Learn More about the Leap Year

First let’s get our bearings and find out what a Leap Year is and when we have them.

What is a Leap Year?

How often do we have them?

Which month has an extra day?

Why is the leap year necessary?

Research Calendars

Leap Years are based on the mathematics of our calendar. Let’s find out about calendars.

Which calendar is our current 12 month calendar?

What is the origin of the calendar we use today?

Which calendar is our calendar closely based on?

What other forms of calendar have been used by civilizations throughout history?

Try marking the days using a different form of calendar? Which do you think is most efficient?

More Geography Quests

If you enjoyed today’s Geography Quest here at Bright Ideas Press and you’d like to see more of them, here are a few links to get you started.

Geography Quests at Blog, She Wrote– This is the spot to find all 35+ Geography Quests that I’ve written over the last several years. This list is being added to all the time. If you subscribe, you’ll find a free printable for using with your Geography Quests.